Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-01-05
BIRDS AT SEA.
HOW SuperstitiOus Sailors View Some
Members Of the reathered Tribe.
IN. Y. Mail and Expressl

How superstitious Sailors View Some
Members of the reathered Tribe.
IN. Y. Mail and Expressl
Sailors are credited with being the most
superstitious persons living. They have
whims, fancies and beliefs connected with
every ordinary occurrence of daily life,
and their ACTORS are all influenced by
some one or more of these occurrences.
On land they watch for black cats, cross
eyed people, ladders and many other OBJ
iects. and on sea their lives are made
happy or unhappy by many of the lesser
rather than the greater scenes of the voy-
age. They are believers in fate, and when
at sea they say their fate is more or less
influenced by the birds that come and
perch on their masts or yards. An old
and educated sea captain, who has
weathered many storms, been ship
wrecked q dozen times and who is
yet hearty and hale, was met recently
on one of the wharfs that surround this
city by reporter. The weather-beaten
tar and the scribe adjourned to neigh
boring hosiery, and over some steaming
hot grog and cigars they chatted about
the superStitions connected with birds at
sea-
Yes" said the captain. as he blew a
long, thin column of smoke through his
lips and watched it curling Enthusiastically
through the air. Eyes, we have a few
little fancies when at sea about birds, and
some are little scared when a gull or
swallow perches on our mast; but, as a
rule, we are pleased to see these feathery
leauties, especially after a long voyage,
for then we know we are nearing
land and will soon be among our fIends
again. The belief of old sailors is that if
an albatross be slaughtered, it at once be-
comes necessary to keep ones weather
eye lifting for squalls, but that no harm
follows if the bird be caught with a piece
OF fat pork and is allowed to die a natural
death on deck. The common house spar
row is much respected at sea. 1t is gravely
asserted that should sparrows be blown
away to sea and alight upon a ship, they
are not to be taken or even chased away
Tor in proportion as the birds are molested
must sail be shortened to provide against
the storm that will certainly come. The
harmless and beautiful gull, whose
lovely sweepings and curvings through
the air, whose exquisite self-balancing ca
pacity in the teeth Of a living gale, whose
bright eyes, salt, shrewd voice and
webbed feet folded IN bosoms Of ermine, it
is impossible to sufficiently admire, has a
commercial virtue that sets il high in the
longshoreman's catalogue Of things to be
approved When this bird appears in great
numbers then is its presence accepted as
an infallible sign of the neighborhood Of
herring shoals.
ut is reckoned a bad sign for ravens 10
perch on the mast OF ship. There is an
old superstition that the rotten timbers Of
foundered ships generate birds. Even a
dead bird may prove a soothsayer, accord
ing tOJack, for, says he, if kingfisher be
suspended to the mast by its beck it via
swing its breast in the direction of the
coming wind Years ago swallows we're
deemed unlucky at sea- If kite perches
on the mast the omen is a good 2ne- A
crow lighting on ship is accepted as
sure sign of prosperous winds, and they
feed the bird with crumbs cNaread by way
of ceaxing it to remain 1t IS said in the
English Channel fishermen attribute the
east wind to the fight of the curiew on
dark nights